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Meet Our Keynote Speaker: Laura Robinson

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been featuring our four keynote speakers who will be speaking at our L.M. Montgomery and Gender conference starting tomorrow, June 24th at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown. Today the LMMI features one of the conferences coordinators and our Visiting Scholar, Laura Robinson.

What was the most interesting thing you discovered while working on the life and work of L.M. Montgomery?

Robinson: There are so many interesting things, which is why I love working on Montgomery. I remember back in 1994 when I was working on the manuscripts at the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown, I realized that there were these numbers on the top of each (or most) manuscript page that didn't seem to correspond to anything. As Montgomery re-used paper to write her manuscripts and appeared to select the backside carefully, including Ewan's medical diagnosis for example, I became enthralled by what those numbers might represent. I spoke to Elizabeth Epperly about them, but she didn't know what they represented either. It remains a mystery.... The second most interesting thing for me is her fraught friendship with Isabel Anderson.

Favourite Montgomery book and why...

Robinson: Again, this is such a hard question. I could answer: whichever one I am presently working on. I love , and perhaps that's because it both gives us the satisfying romance narrative at the very same moment it offer scathing cultural critique.

Sneak Peek: Could you give us a taste of what you will be talking about at the conference?

Robinson: I will be talking about the sense of community that Montgomery scholarship creates, and I hope to connect it with the history of feminism.

What are you most looking forward to at the conference?

Robinson: Seeing everyone of course! And sharing some raspberry cordial.